The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-12-02
TALMAaE'S SERMON.
An Interesting Discourse On ''The
Gospel Of HEALTH
Tho Relation Of bodily Habits and An
ments to tho Spiritual Condition Of
the Insllviaual-WOr,lso Of Warn.
ing to Young and Old.

I -
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmago at the Brooklyr
Tabernacle was 1.-THE Gospel Of Health
His text was:
Till dart strike through his iiver.-Proverbs
VII, "a
He said: There is fash on in sermon les
A comparatively small part Of the Bible
| is called ON for texts. Most Of the passage,
Of Scripture, when announced at the
opening of sermons, Immediately divide
| themselves into old discussions that we
have heard from boyhood. and the effect
on us is soporific. The auditor guesses a
the start just what the preacher will say.
| There are very important chapters and
verses that have never been preached
from. Much of my lifetime am devot.
ing to unlocking these gold chests and
blasting open these qunrrics. We talk
about the heart. and preach about the
heart, and sing about tine heart, but If you
refer TO the physical organ that We call
the heart. it has not half so much to dc
with spiritual health or disease. moral ex'
altation or spiritual depression. as tbs
] organ to the consideration OF which Solo.
mon calls rs in the text, when he describes
sin progressing
tt a dart strike through his liver
Solomon's anatomical and physiological
discoveries were SO very great, that he
WINS nearly three thousand years ahead OF
the scientists of his day. He, more than
one thousand years before Christ, seemed
toknow about the circulation of the blood,
which Harvey discovered 1,6l9 years after
| Christ, for which Solomon, in Ecclesiastss,
describing the human body, speaks of the
pitcher at the fountain, he evidently
| means the three canals leading from the
heart that receives the blood like pitchers.
| When he speaks in Ecc'csiastes of the sill.
yer cord Of life, he evidently means the
spinal marrow, about which in our days
Drs. Mayo, and Carpenter, and Dalton,
and Flint, and Brown-Sequard have ex-
perimented. And Solomon recorded in
the Bible thousands of years before scien.
fists discovered II, that in his time the
spinal cord relaxed in old age. producing
the tremors of hand and head: "Or the
silver cord be lOosed."
In the text he reveals the fact that he
had studied that largest gland Of the hu.
man system, the liver, not by the electric
light of the modern dissecting. room, but
by the dim light of a comparatively dark
age, and yet had seen its important fun {.
ton in the God built castle of the human
body-its selecting and secreting power,
its curious cells, its elongated, branching
tubes. divine Workmanship in central
and right and left lobe, and tho hepatic
artcry, through which God conducts the
crimson tides. Oh! this vital organ is
like the eye of God. in that it never sleeps.
Solomon knew Of it and had noticed,
either in vivisection or post.mortem, what
awful-attacks sin and dissipation make
upon it, until, with the fiat Of Almighty
God, it bids the body and soul separate,
and the one it commands to the grave and
the other it sends 10 Judgment. A javelin
of retri5ution. not glancing Off Or making
slight wound, but piercing it from side
10 side,
Till the dart strike through the liver
Galen and Hippocrates ascribe to the
liver the most of the worlds moral dopres.
sion, and the word melancholy means
black bile.
1preach to you this morning tho gospel
OF health. In taking diagnosis of the dis.
eases OF the soul you must also take the
diagnosis Of the diseases Of the body. As
il to recognize this, one whole book Of the
New Testament was written by q ply.
stefan. Luke was a doctor, and he dis.
courses much of physical effects, and he
tells US Of the good Samaritan's medical
ton of the wounds by pouring in oil and
wine. and recognizes hunger as . hin.
derance to hearing the Gospel, so that the
five thousand were fed; and records the
sparse diet Of the prodigal away from
home, and the extinguished eyesight Of
the beggar by the way side, and let's us
know Of the hemorrhage Of the wounds Of
the dying Christ and the miraculou, post.
norton resuscitation. And any estimate
of the spiritual condition that does not
include also an estimate OF the physical
condition is incomplete.
When the doorkeeper Of Congress fell
dead from excessive joy because Bur.
goyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and
Philip the Fifth Of Spain dropped dead
at the news OF his country's defeat in
battle, and Cardinal WOlsey expired as q
result of Henry the Eighth's anathema, It
was demonstrated thatthe body and soul
are Siamese twins, and when you thrill
the one with Joy or sorrow you thrill the
other. We might as we'll recognize the
tremendous fact that there are two
mighty fortresses in the human body, the
heart and tho liver; the heart the fortress
Of all graces, tho liver the fortress of all
the furies. You may have the head filled
with all intellectualities, and the ear with
all musical appreciation, and the mouth
with all eloquence, and the hand with all
industries, aud the heart with all gen.
erosities, and yet
dart strike through the liver.
Let Christian people avoid the mis-.
take that they IRE ali wrong with God be-
cause they suffer from depression Of
spirits. Many n co,~ecrated man has
found his spiritual sky hefosgsd, and his
hope of Heaven blotted out, and himself
plunged chin de.p in the Slough OF De.
spond, and has said: ''Iy heart is not
right with God, and think must have
made mistake and instead OF being q
child Of light am 4 child o; darkness. No
one can feel as gloomy as feel aud be q
Christian" And he has soas to his min
lister for consolation, and he has collected
Flavel's books, and read and read and
read, and prayed and prayed and prayed,
and wept and weps and wept, and groaned
and groaned aud groaned.
Ny brother, your trouble is not with the
heart, it is gastric disorder or a rebel
ion Of the liver. Iou need a physician
more than you do clergyman. 1t is not
sin that blots out your hope Of
Heaven, but bile. 1t not only
yellows your eyeball, and furs your
tongue, and makes your head ache, but
swoops upon your soul in objections and
The devil is after you. He
has failed to despoil your character, and
he does the ncxt best thing for him-he
ruf'ies your peace of mind. When he says
that you are not forgiven soul, when he
u
when he says that YOU will never got to
Heaven, he lies. You are just as sure Of
Heaven as though you were there already.
But Satan, finding that he can not keep !
you out Of the promised land of Canaan,
ha determI ned that the spios shall NOT